Easy Homemade Hamburger Buns

Today I’m ditching the whole wheat flour for a soft and fluffy Homemade Hamburger Bun made with unbleached bread flour (King Arthur’s brand). Let’s be honest here… the two are just not the same!

I’ve been experimenting a lot with baking breads lately and I’ve come to realize that using all whole wheat flour will NOT yield the same result as using bread flour. I used to think I could just sub whole wheat flour in for anything. The more and more I experiment the more I’m coming to see that making that substitution has been causing me to think I’m just not good at baking breads. I’ve been longing for a perfect result…and have come up short time and time again.

I’ve known bread flour was a completely different animal for years, after all I did spend $25,000 on Baking and Pastry School. You see, bread flour has a higher protein content which makes it better for gluten development. This is going to give you a nicer rise and a fluffier product. I’ve seen people making substitutions between all purpose and bread flour, however I strongly recommend using bread flour for this recipe because I promise….it is just perfect!

I know yeast breads are scary… and believe me… I know why. With all of my experimentations lately I fully understand the complete letdown you feel when you’ve dedicated time, energy, and money into something that just doesn’t produce the results you were looking for. Today I’m taking the “scary” out of Homemade Hamburger Buns because if you follow this recipe I promise you will get the same results pictured. All of my Hamburger Buns were perfect, and far superior to those processed, shelf stable buns you buy at the supermarket that NEVER mold!

A few other notes about these Buns:

Do not skip the egg wash! Egg wash is simply an egg + a bit of water brushed onto your buns before you bake them to give them that nice golden brown color. I have tried to cut corners by skipping the egg wash on yeast breads over and over again and every time I end up thinking “Gee I wish I would have used that egg wash” when my product isn’t nice and golden brown like I hoped it would be.

Temperature matters. Temperature is a crucial part of baking yeast breads. You can actually kill the yeast if your water is too hot, so be careful. I never take the temperature of the water with a thermometer, but when my water feels ever so slightly warmer then lukewarm, that’s what I go with. Obviously, that’s not the “professional” method of figuring out water temperature but it has never failed me. How quickly your dough rises also depends upon the temperature of the room your dough is in. My kitchen is always a little warmer then the rest of the house, which is great for rising dough. In the winter I turn my oven on and sit the dough on top of the oven. Again, nothing “professional” about this, just my own experience.

This dough can be turned into a number of things: Hamburger Buns, breadsticks, garlic bread, hoagie rolls…. you name it. I adapted the recipe from this Almost Famous Breadsticks recipe from Food Network. It is definitely my new favorite dough!

1 eggfor eggwash (I always thin my egg wash with a Tablespoon or two of water)

Instructions

To make the dough: place 1/4 cup warm water in a mixing bowl and sprinkle with 2 and 1/4 teaspoons yeast. Sit aside for about 5 minutes to allow yeast to activate (it should be "foamy" or really wet looking).

Add butter, honey, salt, and additional 1 and 1/4 cup warm water. Turn mixer on, and add 4 and 1/4 cups bread flour. You will end up with a sticky ball.

Turn ball of dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until ball is smooth and soft. Lightly grease outside of dough ball (I used olive oil), and place back inside mixing bowl. Cover and let stand for 1 hour.

To Finish: Press ball of dough down gently, then roll into a log. Cut log in half, then cut 4 rolls out of each half (or 5 if you want smaller rolls). To shape each roll pull sides of dough down and seal at bottom. Press firmly against lightly floured surface with the palm of your hand while rolling ball of dough in a circular motion. This is a very forgiving dough, so if your balls aren't perfect, don't sweat it!

Allow dough to sit another 45 minutes, brush with egg wash, then place in a 400 degree oven and bake for 16-17 minutes or until golden brown.

Great question Sarah Kate! I can imagine an egg allergy would be tough to deal with as eggs are hidden in so many products so kudos to you for working through that! 🙂 I do love these Buns with the wash because it makes the top really nice and golden. I have made them without the wash and the results just aren’t quite the same. I would suggest trying milk (which would give you a nice golden color, but won’t provide shine like the eggs do), butter (which will provide a slightly lighter golden color), or misting them with water before baking and during the baking process (using a spray bottle on the mist setting). I worked in a bakery for a few years and distinctively remember the night time baker spraying down all the rolls he was making that night. Let me know how those options turn out for you!

Frances you could probably sub out about 1/2 of the bread flour for whole wheat flour. That way you can get the nice, dark flavor of the whole wheat and still have the elastic gluten development from the bread flour.

These were delicious. My daughter has a dairy allergy so I substituted the butter with coconut oil. They weren’t as sticky and malleable as they probably would have been with the butter but were still yummy (we’re in Colorado, so altitude could have something to do with that too, not sure). We will be keeping this in our go-to recipes! Thanks for sharing!

Hi Maren! So sorry to hear your buns were a flop. Don’t be discouraged, it has happened to me before too. 🙁 It is hard to say exactly what could have been the culprit, the reason is there are so many things that could potentially go wrong. My best guess would be that maybe the water you mixed with your yeast was too hot/too cold. If the water is too hot it can kill the yeast, and if the water is too cold the yeast may not have activated. Do you remember this step? As far as the all purpose flour, that shouldn’t make or break the recipe.

Loved these!! Used them for barbecue pulled pork buns, and they were wonderful. I also spread homemade jam on them for a snack the next day. I feel like I could get away with using less salt, so I will try that next time.

I use my oven with just the light on as a warm draft free place to let dough rise. The light gives of enough heat to make it nice and cozy. Mine is a small oven, not sure if the light would be enough heat for a large oven.

Hi Lisa!
Yes, there are actually a number of reasons this could have happened. Thinking back… did you use any ingredients that had been sitting in your pantry for a while? Sometimes older ingredients don’t produce the same product. I had this happen to me with old flour my mom had (she doesn’t cook haha). Second, the brand of the flour that I used when my product was really dense was Pillsbury. I didn’t care for the texture of the final product, it was dense and crumbly. So I always stick with King Arthur for that reason.
Another reason, was your water temperature too hot/too cold? It is possible your yeast was either killed from too hot or didn’t quite activate with too cold. If your yeast was activated, did it rise properly? It should rise to be very soft and puffy. I know in the winter I don’t get as much of a rise, so I turn my oven on the lowest setting for a few minutes, then turn it off and place the dough in the oven to get a really nice rise despite the cold. Sometimes it takes longer to rise in a colder setting, so if you were just going based on the time frame I provided, it may have been too short to get the full rise.
I just made this recipe the other day and it did produce a nice and fluffy bun. I wouldn’t get discouraged though! One unsuccessful recipe doesn’t mean you can’t do it or aren’t good at making bread from scratch. If you try again I’d love to hear your results! 🙂

Hello, I am just in the middle of making these buns again because we absolutely love them! I thought I should let you know since I have been making them for almost a year now with great results. The funny part is my name is Dana and I have three little boys as well! Thanks for the awesome recipe!

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